WM 


ANNUAL  SERMON 


BEFORE  THE 


American  Board  of  Commissioners 
FOR  Foreign  Missions 


DELIVERED   AT 


OBERLIN,  OHIO,  OCTOBER  14,  1902 


REV.   NEWELL  DWIGHT  HILLIS,  D.D. 

Pastor  of  the  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn 


'^mm: 


1*3.0  i 


'^^' 


•S: 


.^>^ 


^^  t\^t  ®I??nIo9rrer/  ^ 


PRINCETON,  N.J. 


^/^. 


'V/, 


'V. 


* 


BV    2075     .H5    1902 

Hillis,  Newell  Dwight,  1858- 

1929. 
The  self-propagating  power 


,f   fVir-icri-i.-^-nT 


THE  SELF-PROPAGATING  POWER  OF  CHRISTIANITY 


ANNUAL  SERMON 


BEFORE  THE 


American  Board  of  Commissioners 
FOR  Foreign  Missions 


DELIVERED   AT 


OBERLIN,  OHIO,  OCTOBER  14,  1902 


REV.   NEWELL  DWIGHT  HILLIS,  D.D. 
Pastor  of  the  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn 


PUBLISHED    BY    THE    BOARD 

14    BEACON    STREET,    BOSTON      ^ 
1902 


The  Self-propagating  Power  of  Christianity. 


"THE    KINGDOM   OF    HEAVEN    IS    LIKE    LEAVEN,    WHICH    A  WOMAN    TOOK 
AND    HID   IN   THREE    MEASURES   OF    U^W."  —  MattkeW  XUt  :  JJ. 
"BUT    HE   COULD   NOT    BE   HID."  —  Mark  vH :  24. 

Christianity  is  a  self-propagating  system.  It  journeys 
forward,  carrying  with  it  full  power  to  reproduce  itself.  In 
the  past  it  has  made  its  own  way,  without  regard  to  indi- 
vidual protest  or  the  persecutions  organized  by  states.  It 
fulfills  the  story  of  the  magic  tree,  that  ripens  fruit  for  the 
multitudes  of  today,  and  ripens  also  the  seeds  for  future 
generations ;  each  seed  also,  having  wings  on  which  it  rides 
forth,  to  search  out  the  richest  soil ;  so  that  the  futility  of 
opposition  to  Christianity  is  self-evident.  What  if  a  man 
hates  the  summer .''  How  can  he  oppose  it,  and  drive  the 
July  back }  Can  he  go  up  against  the  south  wind  with  sword 
and  spears  ?  Of  what  avail  are  flights  of  arrows  against  the 
sunbeams  that  silently  and  secretly  gnaw  at  the  snowdrifts  .-• 
And  Christianity  journeys  forward  across  the  centuries  and 
the  continents  like  an  advancing  summer,  against  which 
weapons  are  powerless.  The  principle  that  explains  Chris- 
tianity's self-propagating  power,  is  the  law  of  the  conserva- 
tion of  energy.  We  burn  up  the  coal,  but  in  doing  so  we 
change  its  forms,  and  do  not  destroy  its  atoms.  And  much 
less  is  it  possible  to  destroy  eternal  truth. 

For  that  reason,  there  are  no  lost  arts,  no  forgotten 
tools,  no  heroes  who  are  dead,  no  true  word,  no  kindly  deed, 
no  beneficent  institution  that  has  ever  perished  out  of  so- 
ciety. How  can  a  good  thing  die  .-'  In  his  struggle  against 
the  snow  and  frost,  man  discovers  fire.      By  what  possible 


4  The  Self-propagating  Power  of  Christianity. 

method  will  the  winter  allow  man  to  forget  the  path  to  the 
forest  ?  Once  the  herdsman  has  discovered  Jacob's  well,  how 
can  the  flocks  and  keepers  forget  the  path  that  leads  to  the 
fountain  ?  Borne  down  by  his  burden,  man  learned  how  to 
make  the  horse  lend  his  loin  and  limbs,  how  to  make  the 
river  carry  his  grain.  His  tired  back  makes  it  impos- 
sible for  the  laborer  to  forget  these  friends  who  have  lifted 
his  load.  Fulfilling  a  life  full  of  toil,  full  of  strife,  full  of 
defeat  and  love,  and  grief,  and  death,  how  can  man,  once 
he  has  found  the  truth  regarding  the  Fatherhood  of  God, 
the  meaning  of  his  loving  providence,  or  caught  a  glimpse 
of  the  immortal  hope,  ever  lose  the  splendid  vision.  When 
the  birds  of  paradise  go  into  the  desert,  and  forget  the  way 
back  to  the  oasis  ;  when  the  babe  in  its  weariness  forgets 
its  mother's  breast  ;  when  the  pilgrim  forgets  the  path  to 
his  own  home,  then,  and  never  until  then,  will  it  be  possible 
for  any  good  thing  or  true  Christian  word  to  be  forgotten, 
overthrown,  or  destroyed. 

Christianity  is  leaven,  and  leaven,  like  the  infinite  God, 
works,  and  neither  slumbers  nor  sleeps.  Christianity  is 
light,  and  the  light  does  not  simply  warm  the  seed,  but 
lifts  it.  Enemies  talk  about  overthrowing  Christianity. 
They  can  put  a  bushel  over  a  candle ;  but  whose  arm  is 
long  enough  or  strong  enough  to  extinguish  the  sun .-' 
Councils  and  assemblies  talk  about  protecting  the  truth,  but 
in  their  ignorance  they  forget  that  the  truth  protects  them. 
Once  the  light  of  the  world  has  arisen,  it  nevermore  can 
be  hid. 

With  sublime  audacity  Christ  foretells  the  conflict,  the 
gradual  gains,  and  final  victory  of  his  truth.  "  Every  knee 
shall  bow,"  adds  his  servant,  Paul ;  his  truth  will  make  its 
own  way.  No  enemy  can  hinder  its  forward  movement ; 
friends  can  help  it,  only  as  the  husbandman  helps  the  sum- 
mer by  opening  the  furrow  and  sowing  the  seed.     And  now 


The  Self-propagating  Power  of  Christianity.  5 

that  these  centuries  have  passed,  it  is  fair  to  ask  whether 
its  gains  and  influence  have  been  such  as  to  justify  Christ's 
forecast  of  final  supremacy.  History  is  a  stern  judge  ; 
from  her  decision  there  is  no  appeal ;  and  we  gladly  turn 
toward  that  tribunal.  On  the  day  He  was  ensepulchred, 
the  last  spark  of  hope  was  apparently  extinguished.  Forty 
days  later  there  were  eleven  men  and  three  women  whose 
doubt  and  fear  had  turned  to  faith.  In  forty  days  more, 
this  company  was  three  thousand.  In  one  year  it  was  fifty 
thousand.  In  one  century,  it  was  two  millions.  When 
three  centuries  had  passed  by,  all  the  continents  were  ban- 
nered. The  tombs  that  were  closed  in  the  fourth  century 
are  now  being  uncovered,  excavators  are  finding  churches, 
parchments,  manuscripts,  epitaphs  and  names.  These  tombs 
are  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  in  Arabia  to  the  south, 
in  Ethiopia,  near  the  head  waters  of  the  Nile,  in  the  villages 
about  Carthage,  to  the  west,  in  the  deserted  hillsides  of 
southern  France  and  western  Spain, 

But  not  simply  the  multitudes  that  Christianity  con- 
quered, the  character  of  the  men  also  whose  superb  intel- 
lects it  mastered,  bear  witness  to  Christianity's  power  in 
making  its  own  way.  One  of  the  first  to  capitulate,  was 
Saul,  the  acutest  mind  of  his  time  indeed,  but  also  of  the 
greatest  intellects  of  all  time.  Then  came  Polycarp,  lo-. 
natius,  and  Tertullian, — renowned  as  martyrs  indeed,  but 
known  also  for  their  wide  learning,  and  their  literary  achieve- 
ments. In  the  Third  Century,  Christ  won  over  the  two 
greatest  thinkers  of  that  era,  Justin  Martyr  and  Origen. 
It  conquered  the  greatest  mind  of  the  Fourth  Century, 
Athanasius,  the  philosopher  and  teacher  of  Alexandria,  even 
as  it  subdued  that  Chrysostom  who  became  its  voice  and 
became  renowned  as  "the  golden-mouthed  John."  Then 
Augustin,  the  one  outstanding  man  of  the  Fifth  Century, 
fell  into  line,  and  the  movement  became  a  contagion.     One 


6  The  Self-propagating  Power  of  Christianity. 

missionary  sailed  to  the  West,  dropped  anchor  at  the  mouth 
of  a  little  river  in  Ireland,  and  soon  Christianity  conquered 
the  Celts,  and  it  has  never  lost  its  hold  on  Belfast,  Edin- 
burg,  and  Aberdeen.  Then  came  Augustine  to  Canterbury, 
in  590,  with  Christianity's  victory  over  the  five  million 
Saxons,  that  are  now  thirty  millions  at  home  and  one  hun- 
dred millions  abroad.  In  the  next  century  the  Germans 
and  the  Scandinavians  yielded,  and  they,  with  their  neigh- 
bors, are  now  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions.  And  if  it  be 
said  that  Christianity  has  lost  its  grip  on  the  Latin  nations, 
we  answer  that  the  Christian  spirit  there  is,  in  the  words 
of  Christ,  asleep,  but  not  dead.  Even  more  signal  the  re- 
forms that  Christianity  wrought.  It  began  by  rescuing 
unwelcome  and  orphan  children  ;  then,  under  the  lead  of 
Telemachus,  the  monk,  in  one  dramatic  stroke,  stopped  the 
gladiatorial  games.  Its  law  of  love  soon  ameliorated  the  con- 
dition of  the  lame,  the  halt  and  the  blind,  through  innumer- 
able plans  of  relief.  In  the  Eleventh  Century,  Bernard  and 
Peter  the  Hermit  inaugurated  their  Crusades ;  and,  return- 
ing from  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  they  sowed  all  Western  Europe 
with  the  seed  of  Eastern  civilization.  Then  came  the  great 
outburst.  "  Let  us  have  buildings  worthy  of  His  worship," 
said  the  architects  and  the  guild  of  masons,  and  soon  Europe 
was  covered  with  the  cathedrals,  all  bearing  the  shape  of 
Christ's  cross.  "Let  us  have  music  worthy  of  His  praise," 
said  Stradivarius,  and  the  monks  organized  the  skilled  work- 
men of  every  city  into  companies  to  make  violins,  and  cellos 
and  base  viols,  and  organs,  and  wind  instruments,  while 
musicians  wrote  Te  Deums,  worthy  of  His  praise.  "  Let 
us  paint  the  pictures  of  His  Divine  career,"  said  the  artist, 
and  when  Cimabue  unveiled  his  canvas,  representing  the 
infant  Christ  and  His  Mother,  and  the  crucified  Saviour,  the 
people  of  Florence  closed  their  shops,  and  forming  a  pro- 
cession, with  banners  they  marched  to  the  church,  to  unveil 
the  new  art. 


The  Self-propagating  Power  of  Christianity.  7 

Then  the  movement  took  on  a  new  form.  "  Let  the 
people  have  liberty  and  the  laws  ;  "  the  city  was  Florence, 
and  the  speaker  was  the  monk  of  San  Marco.  "  Let  the 
people  have  direct  access  to  God;"  the  land  is  Germany, 
and  the  speaker  is  Luther.  "  Let  the  people  control  their 
own  church  life  ;  "  the  land  is  Switzerland,  and  the  speaker 
is  Calvin.  "  Let  the  people  read  the  Bible  for  themselves, 
and  own  their  own  books  ;  "  the  land  is  Holland,  and  the 
speaker  is  Erasmus,  "Let  each  man  present  his  own 
prayer  to  God ; "  the  city  is  Paris,  and  the  speaker  is 
Coligny.  "  There  is  only  one  King  who  rules  by  divine 
right,  a  sovereign  citizen,  to  whom  the  monarch  is  re- 
sponsible ;  "  the  land  is  England,  and  the  speaker  is  Crom- 
well. "  Let  us  have  a  new  country,  where  we  may  lay  the 
foundations  free  from  the  debris  of  past  centuries  ;  "  the 
land  is  Massachusetts,  and  the  speakers  were  our  Pilgrim 
Fathers.  And  now  has  come  the  new  era,  when  the  old  walls 
around  China  and  the  old  cruelties  in  the  islands  of  the  sea, 
have  fallen,  and  the  world  is  becoming  one  world,  and  the 
nations  are  becoming  one  people,  and  the  strong  tribes  are 
helping  the  weak  ones  to  make  their  government  safe,  their 
laws  just,  their  liberties  secure.  All  this  is  history.  All 
these  are  facts  that  cannot  be  denied,  that  cannot  be  mini- 
mized ;  that  can  only  be  confessed  ;  verily,  the  leaven  has 
worked ;  verily,  the  light  could  not  be  hid.  Events  prove 
that  Christianity  has  a  self-propagating  power. 

Having  reviewed  the  facts  of  history,  it  remains  for  us 
to  ask,  what  is  the  meaning  of  Christianity's  power  to 
propagate  itself  and  make  its  own  way  through  the  centu- 
ries and  across  the  continents  .-*  Difficult  indeed  the  ques- 
tion what  the  world  owes  to  Christianity  and  its  missionaries  ! 
There  is  nothing  so  difficult  as  to  estimate  the  influence 
of  a  man,  whether  that  man  be  good  or  whether  he  be  bad. 
Difficult  is  it  to  measure  the  amount  of  light,  and  difficult 


8  The  Self-propagating  Power  of  Christianity. 

to  weigh  the  elements  in  the  atmosphere!  But  a  thousand- 
fold more  difficult  to  measure  personal  influence.  We  trace 
the  movement  of  the  spring  as  it  journeys  down  the  valley, 
widens  into  a  river,  and  at  length  carries  upon  its  bosom 
fleets  of  war  and  fleets  of  peace,  and  we  know  the  length  of 
that  Nile  or  Amazon,  its  breadth  and  depth  up  to  the  point 
where  it  mingles  with  the  infinite  sea.  But  by  what  tests 
shall  we  measure  a  man,  as  he  through  his  example,  teach- 
ings, and  weight  of  character,  moves  forward  amidst  his 
generation }  In  trying  to  estimate  the  influence  of  a  man 
or  a  system,  there  is  one  principle  to  be  kept  in  mind. 
For  example;  Wendell  Phillips  once  traced  all  invention 
to  Bacon.  If,  then.  Lord  Bacon  were  living  today,  he 
could  say  to  Watt  :  "  This  engine  is  mine ;  I  taught  you 
how  to  study  the  effect  of  steam  ; "  and  to  McCormick, 
"  This  reaper  is  mine,  I  taught  you  how  to  study  the  con- 
version of  power;"  and  to  Fulton,  "This  ship  is  mine,  I 
taught  you  how  to  study  the  winds  and  waves  ; "  and  to 
Edison,  "This  light  is  mine,  I  taught  you  how  to  study 
the  lightning ; "  and  from  this  viewpoint  Bacon  becomes 
the  indirect  author  of  all  modern  inventions,  by  virtue  of 
his  inductive  principle. 

Now  doubtless,  in  strict  justice,  we  can  claim  for  a 
great  man  what  he  achieves  indirectly  as  well  as  what  he 
brings  about  through  direct  influence.  But  we  need  not 
take  advantage  of  this  principle ;  let  us  rather  use  the  test 
of  exclusion,  a  test  that  is  simple  but  perhaps  severe.  Thus 
in  estimating  the  influence  of  Arnold  of  Rugby,  we  can  ex- 
clude his  school,  his  son  Matthew,  his  favorite  pupils  Dean 
Stanley  and  Thomas  Hughes  and  Arthur  Hugh  Clough,  and 
when  we  see  what  is  left,  we  understand  how  great  was  the 
influence  of  Thomas  Arnold.  And  not  otherwise  can  we 
apply  the  principle  of  exclusion  to  the  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity on  a  nation.      Augustine  landed  in  England  in  590 


The  Self -propagating  Power  of  Christianity,  9 

and  conquered  the  Saxon  folk  through  his  statement  of  the 
love  of  God  revealed  in  Christ,  and  by  the  immortal  hope. 
Then  when  centuries  have  passed  by,  Matthew  Arnold  tells 
us  that  the  springs  of  English  literature  were  in  Caedmon 
and  Bede  and  King  Alfred's  version  of  the  Bible,  and  Bun- 
yan's  "  Pilgrim's  Progress."  But  all  these  were  men  who 
dedicated  their  lives  to  the  study  of  Christ's  words,  and  to 
giving  his  principles  a  legal  and  poetic  form.  Take  the 
Christian  element  out  of  Casdmon's  pages  and  Bede's  chap- 
ters and  King  Alfred's  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
out  of  Bunyan's  "  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  and  you  would  have 
taken  the  sheaves  out  of  the  wheatfield  and  the  fruit  from 
all  the  orchards,  and  the  light  out  of  the  sunbeams,  and  the 
sun  itself  out  of  the  sky.  But  when  you  destroy  the  springs 
of  English  literature,  the  literature  itself  has  been  annihi- 
lated. 

Then  exclude  from  the  laws  of  England  what  its  codes 
owe  to  Christianity,  and  what  can  we  better  say  of  the 
influence  of  the  Christian  Scriptures  upon  the  body  of 
English  common  law  than  to  recall  Thomas  Hooker's  words, 
"That  law  whose  seat  is  the  bosom  of  God  and  whose  voice 
is  the  melody  of  the  world,"  and  who  closes  his  sublime 
treatise  with  a  tribute  to  Him  who  superseded  the  "Thou 
shalt  nots  "  of  Moses  with  his  great  positives,  "  Thou  shalt 
love,  thou  shalt  hope,  thou  shalt  trust." 

If  now  we  exclude  from  the  rise  of  English  liberty  all 
Christian  elements,  what  would  be  left,  save  the  old  des- 
potism and  tyranny .-'  In  the  recent  celebration  of  the  coro- 
nation of  England's  king,  a  great  jurist  passed  in  review 
the  architects  of  English  liberty.  In  calling  the  roll  of  her 
heroes,  he  mentioned  King  Alfred,  with  his  Scriptures ; 
John  Wickliffe,  the  great  translator;  the  Christian  barons 
at  Runnymede,  extorting  the  Magna  Charta  from  a  tyrant ; 
and  then  came  to  the  great  Puritan  epoch  that  he  said  was 


lo  The  Self-propagating  Power  of  Christianity. 

the  golden  age  of  English  liberty,  and  the  names  that  he 
called  were  the  names  of  John  Eliot,  John  Hampden,  John 
Pym,  Oliver  Cromwell,  and  the  great  Puritan  preachers. 
But  what  shall  we  say  of  John  Hampden,  with  his  eloquence 
and  scholarship,  save  that  this  patriot  and  hero  was  first  of 
all  a  patrician  Christian  gentleman,  Christ's  man,  and  there- 
fore serving  the  cause.  And  what  shall  we  say  of  John 
Pym,  the  old  man  eloquent,  save  that  he  loved  his  fellows 
because  he  loved  his  God  ?  What  shall  we  say  of  Oliver 
Cromwell,  save  that  like  Dante  and  Milton  and  Bernard 
and  St.  Francis  of  Assissi,  he  was  a  God-intoxicated  man, 
a  man  of  one  book,  the  Bible,  a  man  who  lived  the  life  of 
prayer  and  was  often  in  the  desert  or  fields  alone  with  God  ? 
Not  less  striking  the  influence  of  Christianity  on  Eng- 
lish poetry.  It  has  been  said  that  all  German  literature 
began  with  Martin  Luther's  translations  of  the  Gospels, 
and  a  like  statement  would  hold  of  English  literature.  Take 
away  Christianity  from  the  sixteenth  century,  and  you  lose 
Spencer's  "Faery  Queen."  In  the  next  century,  if  you  ex- 
clude Christianity,  you  lose  England's  sublimest  epic,  Mil- 
ton's "  Paradise  Lost,"  not  to  mention  his  great  "  Plea  for 
the  Liberty  of  the  Printing  Press."  You  would  lose  also 
the  nine  greatest  dramas  of  Shakespeare,  the  tragedies  that 
have  as  their  mother  principle  a  great  Christian  truth.  At 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  you  would  lose  the  poems 
of  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge,  and  the  "  Cotter's  Saturday 
Night "  of  Burns.  In  the  nineteenth  century  you  would 
lose  its  sublimest  poem,  the  "In  Memoriam  "  of  Tennyson, 
and  the  greatest  works  of  Browning.  And  of  Christianity's 
influence  on  their  art,  we  must  remember  that  the  men  of 
the  pre-Raphaelite  school,  William  Holman  Hunt  and  Ros- 
setti  and  George  Frederic  Watts,  dedicated  their  unrivaled 
genius  to  interpreting  the  Christ,  who,  in  Hunt's  greatest 
painting,  stands  knocking  at  the  door.     And  what  shall  we 


The  Self-propagating  Power  of  Christianity.  ii 

say  of  the  essayists,  save  that  Ruskin  ends  his  career  by 
saying,  "  Do  you  ask  me  what  is  the  sum  of  all  my  teach- 
ing ?  It  is  this:  'Whatsoever  Christ  saith  unto  you,  do 
it  !'  "  And  what  is  the  essence  of  Carlyle's  statement  save 
this  :  "  The  melody  that  set  forth  from  Bethlehem  and  has 
come  down  through  the  centuries  ravishing  the  heart  of  the 
generations,  is  the  one  world  melody  that  is  destined  to  sub- 
due all  discords  into  the  sweetness  of  Christ's  will." 

And  of  the  history  of  her  eloquence,  take  away  those 
orators  and  statesmen  and  jurists  who  were  Christian,  from 
the  days  of  Milton  and  Hampden  to  the  days  of  Bright  and 
Cobden  and  Gladstone,  and  it  would  be  like  taking  the 
Christian  themes  from  the  walls  of  the  Sistine  chapel  to 
leave  only  picture  frames  and  empty  spaces.  For  what  is 
England  but  the  truths  of  Jesus  Christ  converted  into 
social,  legal  and  political  institutions .-' 

One  way  of  measuring  the  sun  is  to  estimate  its  di- 
mensions and  its  heat  power,  and  to  study  the  sunbeam. 
Another  way  is  to  study  the  sheaf  that  is  produced  by  the 
single  beam,  the  harvests  and  the  vineyards  and  orchards 
that  cover  the  land.  And  we  understand  Christianity  best 
by  studying  its  influence  upon  man's  individual  happiness 
and  the  welfare  of  the  state.  The  rise  and  reign  of  the 
common  people  witness  to  the  worth  of  Christianity.  His- 
tory is  a  stern  judge  indeed,  and  when  she  speaks,  her 
testimony  is  conclusive.  And  this  simple  test  of  exclusion 
tells  us  how  much  the  Christian  missionary  has  done  for 
this  nation  that  stands  in  the  very  front  of  the  nations  of 
the  earth. 

THE     EXPLANATION      OF      CHRISTIANITY'S     SELF-PROPAGATING 

POWER. 

How  shall  we  explain  Christianity's  power  to  propa- 
gate itself.?  The  answer  to  this  question  is  not  difficult 
nor  far  to  seek.      It  makes  states  strong,  it  develops  insti- 


12  The  Self-propagating  Power  of  Christianity. 

tutions  for  society  without,  by  transforming  the  individual 
within.  Its  genius  is  the  genius  of  individual  worth.  It 
shows  us  a  great  man,  from  whose  heart  a  great  movement 
starts  forward,  as  a  great  river  sets  forth  on  its  journey 
from  the  mountain  side.  The  students  of  history  have 
never  estimated  at  its 'full  value  the  importance  of  Christ's 
words,  "  Ye  must  be  born  again."  The  prodigal  may  begin 
again  after  his  self-wreckage  ;  the  publican,  grown  gray  and 
hardened  in  sin,  may  return  to  the  days  when  the  heart 
was  young ;  the  man  who  has  shipwrecked  his  happi- 
ness may  begin  anew.  When  men  come  to  understand 
that  sentiment  fully,  with  blinding  tears  of  joy  they  will 
exclaim,  "We  may,  we  may  be  born  again!"  That  single 
word  swings  open  for  us  the  door  of  infinite  possibilities 
in  the  life  that  now  is,  as  well  as  the  door  into  heaven. 
It  means  that  the  soul  may  receive  the  divine  invasion. 
The  seed  of  wheat  is  very  small,  but  in  order  to  the  gol- 
den sheaf  we  do  not  need  to  have  a  large  seed.  Let 
the  brown  berry  of  the  wheat  be  never  so  small,  the  sheaf 
will  come,  because  the  sun  is  large  above,  and  the  soil  is 
rich  beneath,  and  the  great  earth  lending  its  richness  to 
the  roots,  and  the  great  sun  in  the  sky  lending  its  light 
and  warmth,  passing  through  the  sheaf  will  create  the  seed 
and  the  bread  for  the  nations. 

We  cannot  paint  in  colors  too  rich  the  possibility  of 
a  soul  above  which  hangs  the  light  of  the  world,  and  about 
which,  like  an  atmosphere,  lies  the  loving  providence  of 
God,  and  beneath  which  lies  God's  infinite  truth,  like  soil. 
It  is  this  that  explains  the  appearance  of  great  men.  They 
began  with  germinal  faculties,  but  they  were  born  again 
through  the  incoming  of  the  tides  of  the  divine  spirit,  com- 
ing at  morning  and  coming  at  noon  and  coming  at  night, 
until  the  soul  took  on  the  dimensions  of  one  whom  John 
called  "the  sons  of  God."     The  old  idea  was  of  course  to 


The  Self-propagating  Power  of  Christianity.  13 

make  the  state  great  by  multiplying  tools  and  machines 
on  the  outside.  Now  we  know  that  the  way  to  make  the 
tool  and  the  machine  is  to  first  of  all  make  the  mind  invent- 
ive on  the  inside.  One  way  to  decorate  a  tree  is  to  tie 
waxen  apples  on  the  boughs,  and  soon  each  branch  will  be 
clothed  with  loveliness.  Another  way  to  make  an  apple 
tree  beautiful  is  to  feed  the  roots  and  let  in  the  sunshine, 
and  when  the  sap  begins  to  flow  it  will  secrete  its  own 
sugar,  ripen  its  own  fruit,  and  fill  the  fruit  with  sweet, 
crisp  and  dripping  juices.  And  this  fruit  does  not  simply 
decorate  the  boughs,  but  it  also  nourishes  the  people  with 
true  food.  The  way  to  enrich  the  state  without  is  to  feed 
the  soul  within.  Would  you  have  libraries  .-*  Waken  and 
inspire  reason,  and  the  youth  will  write  his  own  books. 
Would  you  have  galleries  filled  with  pictures .''  Waken  and 
inspire  the  taste,  and  the  youth  will  become  an  artist,  whose 
brush  will  be  as  full  of  color  as  the  summer  itself.  Would 
you  have  laws  pure  and  high.-'  Waken  the  love  of  justice, 
and  the  youth  will  bring  about  all  needed  reforms.  Would 
you  have  the  state  moral  and  religious  .-•  Waken  the  man's 
conscience  by  sending  the  vision  of  God  unto  this  young 
Jacob,  that  he  may  see  the  angels  of  God  ascending  and 
descending,  and  so  be  changed  from  Jacob,  the  crafty,  to 
Israel,  the  prince  among  men.  Would  you  have  a  hard, 
cruel  man  become  gentle  and  humane  .-•  Send  to  this  Saul 
some  heavenly  vision  as  he  moves  along  the  way  to  Da- 
mascus, and  the  enemy  will  become  a  friend,  and  the  friend 
an  apostle  and  martyr.  And  would  you  have  Christianity 
journey  like  the  advancing  light  the  great  world  round  .-^ 
Once  the  youth  has  experienced  the  love  of  God,  he  will 
ask  no  service  from  others,  but  his  heart  will  rather  over- 
flow with  service  to  his  fellows. 

Little  need,  therefore,  of  alarm  for  the  future  of  Chris- 
tianity !     In  these  days  there  are  many  prophets  of  ill  tidings 


14  The  Self-propagating  Power  of  Christiatiity. 

abroad.  These  pessimists  are  afraid  the  church  attendance 
is  less  striking ;  that  the  people  are  less  interested  in  the 
study  of  the  Bible.  Gone  are  our  great  preachers  !  Gone 
the  great  statesmen  and  heroes  !  Gone  the  great  poets  like 
Tennyson  and  Browning  and  Longfellow  and  Lowell,  and 
these  have  left  no  successors  !  But  once  every  thirty  years 
all  the  disciples,  the  whole  Christian  church  is  blotted  out. 
Once  every  generation  death  annihilates  the  great  leaders 
and  teachers  and  patriots  and  heroes.  The  frost  with  its 
sharp  sickle  will  soon  cut  down  every  shock  of  corn,  strip 
away  every  leaf  from  the  trees,  leave  every  vineyard  bare 
and  sear ;  but  the  frost  cannot  lift  his  icy  fingers  to  obliter- 
ate the  sun  ;  the  sun  can  return  to  create  new  shocks  of 
corn,  to  reclothe  the  orchards  and  make  each  vineyard  again 
to  be  deep-fruited  with  its  clusters,  until  the  land  waves 
with  harvests  from  Maine  to  Oregon. 

Sometimes  councils  say,  "  We  have  to  take  care  of  the 
truth,"  and  assemblies  say,  "  We  must  guard  the  truth  com- 
mitted to  our  charge."  But  it  is  the  truth  that  takes  care 
of  them.  No,  nothing  can  injure  Christianity ;  no  hand 
can  take  off  its  chariot  wheels  and  interrupt  its  onward 
progress.  No  weapon  formed  against  His  truth  and  church 
can  prevail  against  Him.  Christianity  is  leaven  that  works, 
works  day  and  night,  neither  slumbering  nor  sleeping. 
Christianity  is  light.  It  lifts  as  well  as  shines,  it  regener- 
ates and  saves.  F'or  the  dying  leaders  it  can  raise  up  new 
and  greater  apostles,  and  propagating  itself,  at  last  shall 
come  an  era  when  every  knee  shall  bow  and  every  tongue 
confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord  ! 

CHRISTIANITY     NOT     LOSING     ITS    SELF-PROPAGATING     POWER. 

But  if  Christianity  has  influenced  social  life  and  indi- 
vidual character  in  the  past,  does  it  still  possess  this  power 
to  sweeten  life  and  regenerate  the  nations.''     Can  it  still  fix 


TJie  Self-Propagating  Power  of  Chris tia?iity.  15 

the  attention  of  the  greatest  intellects  ?  Can  it  fascinate 
their  thought  and  finally  conquer  their  reason  and  will  ?  Is 
it  still  advancing  from  continent  to  continent,  winning  over 
the  greatest  minds  and  changing  its  enemies  to  friends  ? 
The  answer  is  again  in  history,  in  the  biography  of  the 
missionary,  if  you  will,  and  in  the  story  of  the  century  that 
has  just  closed.  Unique  the  method  by  which  Christ  has 
always  conquered  a  heathen  nation  !  His  truth  has  always 
raised  up  one  unique  leader,  whose  sweetness  and  light  have 
regenerated  one  community,  and  then  the  influence  of  that 
man  and  community  has  suddenly  moved  like  a  contagion 
over  the  entire  nation.  For  that  reason  it  has  never  been 
necessary  to  send  out  many  missionaries,  and  never,  save 
perhaps  in  one  instance  only,  have  missionaries  been  needed 
in  a  nation  longer  than  three  generations  in  succession. 
The  reason  of  this  is  self-evident  :  Suppose  you  wish  to 
arouse  the  people  in  regard  to  the  peril  of  the  slave  market 
and  the  woes  of  black  men  in  the  cotton  field,  must  you 
have  a  thousand  books  like  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  and  a 
thousand  authors  with  genius  equal  to  that  of  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe }  Is  the  problem  not  how  to  secure  one 
author  and  one  book .''  If  that  one  book  is  strong  enough 
to  master  the  mind  and  heart  of  your  neighbor,  it  will  mas- 
ter your  neighbors  from  ocean  to  ocean,  from  lake  to  gulf. 
When,  then,  God  wishes  to  share  in  a  new  forward  move- 
ment for  society.  He  has  raised  up  one  Moses,  and  following 
him  the  people  have  left  the  wilderness  and  come  into  the 
promised  land  of  righteousness,  —  one  Paul,  and  following 
him,  a  Roman  empire  becomes  Christian,  —  one  Augustine, 
and  immediately  all  men  become  lovers  of  that  "  City  of 
God," — and  one  Luther,  and  all  Germany  straightway  is 
transformed.  Once  this  single  man  is  produced,  the  move- 
ment becomes  a  contagion  and  propagates  itself. 

We  are  told  that  when  the  French  army  landed  on  the 


1 6  The  Self-propagati7ig  Power  of  Christianity. 

southern  shore  of  England  in  the  olden  times,  the  alarm 
was  waved  from  hilltop  to  hilltop  by  signal  fires  that 
leaped  from  the  south  of  England  to  the  northern  shore 
of  Scotland  in  a  single  night.  Not  otherwise  is  it  in  the 
realms  moral  and  spiritual.  Once  a  great  Christian  leader 
has  been  raised  up,  his  example  is  a  light,  and  the  torch 
is  passed  from  hand  to  hand  until  the  dark  continent  soon 
becomes  ablaze  with  the  new  glory.  But  has  Christianity 
been  able  to  rear  such  heroes .-"  You  say  that  India  repre- 
sents the  Gibraltar  of  paganism.  Her  people  are  Aryan, 
philosophic,  scholarly,  analytic,  spinning  arguments  as  fine 
and  delicate  as  the  threads  in  the  spider's  web.  And  you 
say  that  with  their  caste  system  and  their  three  great  re- 
ligions, the  obstacles  to  Christianity  have  been  well-nigh 
insuperable.  But  what  a  company  of  heroes  has  Chris- 
tianity raised  up  in  India  !  Think  of  Carey,  with  his  be- 
ginning as  a  shoemaker,  his  hungry  mind,  his  thirst  for 
wisdom  and  knowledge,  his  unyielding  and  all-conquering 
energy,  developing  indigo  fields  and  factories,  organizing 
a  series  of  great  printing  presses,  making  dictionaries  and 
grammars,  elected  to  the  chair  of  Sanscrit  in  Oxford,  found- 
ing countless  schools  !  Think  of  Duff,  the  unrivaled  orator, 
and  of  his  vast  influence  over  India  !  Think  of  the  heroes 
of  the  Sepoy  rebellion,  of  the  great  colleges  today  in  these 
Christian  and  state  schools  with  more  than  three  million 
children  and  youth  who  will  one  day  become  the  teachers 
of  the  350,000,000  !  Think  of  the  4,500  young  men  related 
to  the  university  of  Calcutta  !  Only  the  other  day  an  Indian 
gentleman  is  reported  to  have  said  that  the  caste  system 
had  shown  more  signs  of  weakening  and  breaking,  like  a 
dam  that  was  giving  away  before  the  incoming  flood,  than 
during  all  past  centuries.  It  was  India's  Governor-general, 
too,  that  once  said  that  the  missionaries  had  conquered  from 
the  unwilling  hands  of  her  political  rulers  and  the  East  India 


TJie  Self -propagating  Power  of  Christianity,  17 

Company,  some  twenty  great  laws  that  had  done  away  with 
the  murder  of  children,  the  burning  of  widows,  the  horrors 
of  the  Juggernaut  system,  the  annihilation  of  manners  and 
customs,  that  were  degrading  the  entire  race.  It  was  an- 
other governor-general  that  said  that  not  the  East  India 
Company,  not  England's  army,  and  not  her  political  rule 
or  her  commerce,  had  given  the  world  a  new  India,  but  that 
the  Christian  missionaries  had  wrought  more  powerfully 
toward  this  end  than  any  and  all  other  forces  combined. 
Or  turn  toward  Burma.  Was  there  ever  a  greater  hero, 
a  more  accurate  scholar,  a  finer  example  of  the  Christ  pa- 
triot and  hero  than  Adoniram  Judson.  whose  memory  today 
in  that  land  is  a  kind  of  moral  lighthouse  that  sheds  its 
beams  over  all  the  beams  and  forests .''  And  China  has  had 
Morrison,  who,  in  sixteen  years,  achieved  that  almost  im- 
possible task  of  creating  the  Chinese  dictionary,  with  its 
five  folio  volumes,  each  one  containing  more  than  4,500 
words  ;  a  task  so  great  that  one  has  said  that  the  man  must 
have  had  muscles  of  brass,  heart  of  steel,  brain  of  woven 
steel,  the  memory  of  an  angel,  and  the  life  of  Methuselah, 
to  have  accomplished  the  task.  In  the  South  Sea  Islands, 
we  have  Paton,  the  story  of  whose  perils  from  the  flight  of 
poisoned  arrows,  of  his  dangers  by  sea  and  dangers  from  the 
war-clubs  of  savages,  and  dangers  from  sharks,  and  dangers 
from  cannibals,  makes  up  one  of  the  most  thrilling  stories 
in  all  the  history  of  heroism.  It  has  been  said  that  nothing 
charms  man  like  stories  of  elephants,  but  the  story  of  the 
heroism  of  James  Chalmers,  whose  biography  has  just  been 
published,  and  who  so  recently  was  martyred  by  the  savages 
of  the  South  Seas,  is  a  story  that  has  a  fascination  beyond 
all  the  tales  of  the  achievements  of  great  orators.  Nor  can 
we  ever  forget  that  it  was  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  who  be- 
gan with  a  violent  prejudice  against  the  Christian  mission- 
ary ;  but  who   afterwards,  in    his   Valaima   letters,  tells   us 


1 8  The  Self-propagating  Power  of  Christianity. 

that  Chalmers  was  one  of  the  bravest,  sweetest,  strongest^ 
noblest  and  most  rugged  men  whom  he  had  ever  met,  whose 
single  influence  changed  him  from  an  opponent  to  a  sup- 
porter of  the  Christian  movement. 

In  Africa,  we  need  not  wonder  that  the  dark  continent 
is  rapidly  becoming  the  continent  of  life  and  progress.  It 
was  my  fortune  some  years  ago,  to  hear  the  debate  in  the 
House  of  Commons  on  the  proposed  Uganda  railway,  and 
at  that  time  I  listened  to  the  speech  of  Sir  Henry  Stanley, 
on  the  resources  of  that  marvelous  country.  But  you  can 
find  his  tribute  in  Mr.  Stanley's  other  works.  This  man  be- 
gan as  a  newspaper  reporter.  He  found  Livingstone  in  the 
heart  of  Africa.  Little  wonder  that  Livingstone's  charac- 
ter and  work  overcame  and  transformed  the  reporter.  Liv- 
insfstone  had  crossed  Africa  from  east  to  west  six  times,  and 
had  gone  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  to  the  tropics  and 
back  four  times.  He  was  burned  forty-two  times  in  that 
furnace  named  the  African  fever.  He  was  wounded  twice 
by  the  poisoned  arrows  of  savages.  Countless  times  his  life 
was  threatened  by  the  war-clubs  and  knives  of  cannibals. 
When  Stanley  urged  him  to  return  to  the  coast,  and  told 
him  of  the  great  triumphal  procession  that  was  awaiting 
him,  the  old  missionary  shook  his  head,  and  borne  by  his 
faithful  servants  on  a  litter,  started  back  to  find  the  head 
waters  of  the  Nile.  Then  one  night  he  slipped  from  his 
couch  and  wrote  in  his  journal  these  words,  "  All  I  can  say 
in  my  loneliness  is,  may  Heaven's  rich  blessing  come  down 
on  every  one — American,  English,  or  Turk  —  who  will 
come  to  heal  this  open  sore  of  the  world  !  " 

The  next  morning  when  Susi  stood  at  the  door  of  the 
tent  and  received  no  response,  he  at  length  entered  and 
found  that  the  great  hero  was  dead.  Then  began,  not  the 
march  of  the  ten  thousand,  but  the  march  of  these  black 
heroes.     What  an  epic  that  story  would  make!     Xenophon's 


The  Self-propagati7ig  Power  of  Christianity.  19 

ten  thousand  marched  away  from  enemies  ;  these  two  men 
marched  away  from  friends.  Xenophon's  host  marched  to- 
ward home  ;  these  marched  away  from  home.  Xenophon's 
host  was  not  far  from  the  great  inland  sea,  and  the  thou- 
sands cheered  one  another.  These  were  but  a  handful,  and 
they  took  up  the  march  at  a  point  as  far  from  the  coast  as 
Omaha  is  from  New  York,  and  going  through  the  wilder- 
ness, swimming  over  the  rivers,  fording  the  streams,  they 
bore  the  body  of  Livingstone  to  the  coast  and  brought  it 
to  England,  and  saw  the  great  surgeon,  the  editor  of  the 
Lancet^  examine  the  arm  for  the  false  joint  and  the  thread 
of  silver  wire.  And  then,  when  all  the  great  men  of  Eng- 
land had  marched  in  solemn  procession  to  her  Abbey,  there 
to  bury  the  body  of  Livingstone,  these  two  black  men  re- 
turned to  the  heart  of  Africa  to  take  up  their  master's  work. 
Did  you  ask  whether  or  not  Africa  has  a  master  spirit  whose 
example  and  teachings  will  flame  forth  the  light  of  Christ 
over  all  the  dark  continent }  He  changed  these  savages  to 
heroes,  and  today  there  is  not  a  river's  mouth  on  the  shore 
of  the  continent  that  once  was  dark  but  there  stands  a  com- 
pany of  Christian  physicians  and  teachers  and  merchants 
and  husbandmen  ;  a  little  column,  that  is  marching  straight 
away  from  the  sea  toward  the  heart  of  that  great  land. 
What  railways  are  now  being  projected,  what  towns  and 
cities  founded,  what  villages,  what  schools,  what  hospitals, 
what  dispensaries,  what  institutions  where  the  trades  are 
taught !  Africa  has  made  greater  progress  in  civilization 
during  the  past  five  years  than  in  the  past  twenty-five  years. 
Already  it  is  becoming  the  seat  of  great  civilizations.  And 
if  every  foreign  missionary  were  today  withdrawn,  the  leaven 
that  is  there  would  in  no  long  time  leaven  the  whole  lump, 
and  bring  in  the  new  era  for  that  great  continent. 


Princeton   Theological   Seminary   Libraries 


1    1012  01234   7789 


Date 

Due 

J  "*^:^""'^"M*^ 

•wtfTfT? 

^ 

Wi'^mmmmmsm^^^^mm 


